Hobby Lobby = My New Love

A Hobby Lobby just moved into town a few months ago and this is now my new favorite place! I actually just returned back from there about 15 minutes ago (2nd time this week). I had never heard or been to one before as I never saw one up north and can't believe what I had been missing out on all these years. Hobby Lobby is like a Joanne Fabrics/Michael's/AC Moore/Home Goods all in one store. I could roam the aisles for days.

I told Groomzilla that closer to the wedding I may be setting up a cot in the store because they have the answer to all of our wedding needs!

It pained me not to start buying things tonight as so much of what I have in mind for the wedding was on sale. What are your thoughts, should I start as soon as possible and start stocking up on wedding supplies?

Only problem is the space, our apartment may not be big enough to store all this stuff!

P.S. Hobby Lobby, like most craft stores, offers great coupon opportunities, I told Groomzilla to get prepared to "pretend" we don't know each other in line at Hobby Lobby so we can use two 40% off coupons per shopping trip.

Here's to happy Hobby's!

Breaking Traditions - How Far is Too Far?

I hope everyone has recovered nicely from their turkey and leftover comas. I know I have. I hate to say this but I was almost ready and anxious to get back to work. I know I always hear myself saying that when I win the lotto I can't wait to not have to work anymore but I think I would probably die of boredom. Any how I am back from my lazy holiday sabbatical and will be back to blogging full swing.

I thought this was an interesting topic to start the week off.

Brides all around are breaking century’s long traditional bridal gown protocol. Now I have seen brides add a splash of color to their bridal gown attire, maybe a pink or blue sash, a pair of pink or red designer shoes, a colorful flower or barrette in their hair, but never have I seen a bride go completely against tradition and opt for a wedding dress color other than white or ivory.

Dresses of color are absolutely gorgeous of course, as is this pale blue one pictured to the right but is there another time and a place for that? I am truly a firm believer in “it is your day and you can do what you want” so who am I to judge?

I know I am not the most traditional bride and some traditions are meant to be broken (in which some of course will be broken at my wedding) but wearing white on my wedding day is one tradition I will clearly be sticking to!

Non-Wedding Wednesday

Tomorrow is Turkey Day and I am so excited to stuff my belly silly with lots of wonderful food. There are so many things that I am thankful for this year that I could be here all day writing a list a mile long. I am especially thankful to have such wonderful friends and family in my life. I truly think that is all that is needed to achieve a happy and fulfilling lifetime.

Groomzilla and I will be spending the holiday with about 8 or 9 of our friends at our friends Mary and Gregg’s house who have so graciously invited us over the past couple of years. Mary and Gregg put out a wonderful spread and we laugh and enjoy each others company all day.

I do have to say that I feel a slight pang in my stomach at the thought of not going out of town this weekend and not being able to spend the holiday with my family up north. The last Thanksgiving I spent at home was 6 years ago which was before I moved to Florida. Holidays are always the hardest for me due to the fact that growing up we created so many wonderful traditions and now I know what it feels like to miss out on them. One day I hope to again live in the same state as my parents and siblings.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday and I will be back up to posting this weekend. I have some new ideas to post and get some input on from all of you!

Gobble Gobble!!

P.S. Today marks 16 months till we say I Do!!!

I kinda LOVE this idea

I saw this on the knot and thought "what a cute idea!"

Getting creative with stationery and turning traditional programs into a Mad Lib or a crossword puzzle with clues about the couples relationship! I think it's absolutely adorable and fun! Who doesn't love Mad Libs and guests will appreciate having something to occupy themselves while they wait for the ceremony to start.

The tricky part would be thinking of enough clues about us as a couple to use. Feel free to comment with suggestions for clues that you could see us using..or would that be considered cheating?!?

Protect Your Jems!

Insurance policy on your ring, how important is this? Taking out a new renter's insurance policy was one of the first things we did when we got engaged. Of course this was not as easy as you would think! By living in Florida, the hurricane prone state, no one wanted to insure us. I must have called 10 places until one finally said yes. Believe it or not we have a renter’s insurance policy through GEICO. I suppose it’s better than nothing.

Click here for more information on insuring your ring. Do other brides find this policy necessary??

Non-Wedding Wednesday

I am completely bumming. I had ordered two pairs of jeans from 7forallmankind.com because I had received an offer with a 40% off coupon code. This was something I could not pass up since the jeans normally run well above the $100 mark.

Once I received them I ripped open the box like a child on Christmas (like I normally do when I receive something that I have ordered) and instantly tried both pairs on. The first pair was about 4 inches TOO long; possibly I could get them hemmed? That definite feeling of disappointment started to rise inside me but I still had one more pair to go. The second pair was of a color that I normally wouldn’t purchase for myself and because I am somewhat fashion challenged had asked some friends their opinion and they agreed they were “cool”. This pair fit much better but I didn’t have that love at first site feeling when I looked at my reflection staring back at me in the mirror.

I proceeded by putting the two pairs of jeans back in their box and hid them away in my closet. I suppose I had to sit on it for awhile, it was like I was almost forcing myself to fall in love with the jeans because I had gotten such a good deal on them. A week went by and I fished the box back out of my closet and retried the two pairs of jeans on. In the end I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on something that I did not completely love. The jeans are now en-route to California in hopes to find another owner who will love them better than I.

Did I do the right thing? I know my VISA card will appreciate it but in hindsight I really wanted a new pair of jeans!

Has anyone else ever tried to force yourself to LOVE a purchase when you knew deep down you didn’t?

Pre-Ceremony Photog Session

The one thing that Groomzilla and I have been adamant about is that the flow of our wedding actually “flows” and QUICKLY. Quickly being the key word. I have heard that some couples are choosing to do some of their pictures (with each other) before the actual ceremony. Now this is completely against years of tradition but you have the chance to get many of the pre-defined shots out of the way, you get married, a few more shots of you, groomzilla and family, bing bang boom you actually have plenty of time to celebrate and enjoy your reception with your friends and family.

Pictures are of course beautiful and are a documentation of one of the most wonderful days of your life but for some reason are not ranking very high on my importance list. To me, what is the most important is spending those few short hours which I know will fly by so fast by celebrating this happy day with those who I hold so very near and dear in my heart.

Groomzilla is 100% against doing any pictures with each other before the ceremony. He wants to see me for the first time as I am walking down the aisle..and me, I am impartial to the idea; however, a small part of me wants to see the look on Groomzilla’s face when he does see me for the first time.

Thoughts or suggestions on this?? Anyone ever had pre-ceremony photos done with your groom? Any regrets??

Just curious if I’ll ever really look back to the 18 photographs of me with my bouquet at my waist, at my chin, in my left hand only, on my shoulder, at my feet..well you get my cynical point.

Poll: Honeymoon Registry – Tacky or Classy?

Many couples these days opt to register for a honeymoon rather than for gifts. I suppose this makes sense for those older couples who have been married before and don’t need another blender or set of china to add to the collection. Once you register for a honeymoon and create a website it takes the place of your gift registry. Guests can contribute funds towards portions of your dream honeymoon and the funds can be used towards anything from plane tickets to romantic horseback rides to zip lining through the jungle.

Is this just a somewhat less tacky way of asking for money?

FYI – We are not planning on registering for a honeymoon, just thought it was a good blog topic.

So whether your enjoying the sunset in Hawaii..


Or horseback riding through Mexico..


Either way, you BETTER be enjoying yourself!!!

For more info on honeymoon registry's click here.

Emboss-amania

I ordered my embosser a couple of weeks ago and I just got the confirmation email that it has finally shipped. I am so excited to "emboss it up". I have a feeling I will be embossing everything right down to my underwear when testing it out! Now my only hurdle will be accepting my new monogrammed married initials. Was this difficult for anyone else? As in the words of myself..EMBRACE IT!!

My apologies for not posting a Non-Wedding Wednesday post last night but after a mentally draining day of work and then class I was literally too exhausted to type, not to mention this time change is completely messing with my internal clock! I will be back up next Wednesday.

Taking All Ideas!

When we met with our wedding coordinator she said that if we were going to use flowers at the ceremony site to make sure we choose something that could be brought into the reception room and used again. That way you would get two uses out of it. To be honest, I sort of like the gazebo as is. I think simple is sometimes better. I feel that sometimes people try to way overdo something and the final result turns out big and gaudy. I was thinking maybe do a very small and simple flower arrangement on either side of the gazebo entrance. Maybe some pink and yellow gerber daises in a glass vase or a classier style mason jar.

What types of flowers/decorations did you use for your ceremony site?? What type of flowers/decorations can you envision at my ceremony site? All pictures are of actual ceremony site.

Below picture shows something somewhat simple and the bottom couple went with just the bare gazebo. I truely think I am leaning more towards the bare gazebo.

All ideas are appreciated!!

The Garbarino Family Wedding Tree

Hopefully you all saw my post at the beginning of the week of “Where it all Started” in which I featured my parents in a tribute post. Click here if you missed it.

Today’s post will be featuring all the weddings in my immediate family as the title suggests “The Garbarino Family Wedding Tree”. This post took a bit of time to compile because I needed to get the pictures that it required. I thank all of you for taking the time out of your schedules in order to get these to me.

Each wedding was so beautiful yet so different in their own way.

Mary Ellen Cole and John Garbarino – Married July 13, 1974 at Christ the King Church. Mary Ellen and John have four children, Nicole, Payton, Tiffany, and Whitney, and two dogs Frank and Cooper.


Nicole Garbarino and David Costanzo – Married September 8, 2001 at Christ the King Church. Nicole and David had a beautiful reception in the fenced in property next to the house in which we all grew up in. We partied the night away and danced until we were sore. It was a beautiful day and one I’ll surely never forget. Nicole and David have two young sons, Benjamin and Cameron who are absolutely adorable. Benjamin started kindergarten this year and Cameron started preschool! Riley is their yellow lab that is often found jumping over their fence to eat lunch at the neighbor’s house.


Payton Garbarino and Kelly Wenzel – Married May 28, 2006 on a beautiful lake in New Jersey. Payton and Kelly got married at a perfect location (as you can see from the picture below) with so many of their friends and family present. A great time was had by all. Payton and Kelly have one adorable son Nicholas and another unknown gender on the way who we are all excited to meet! Oh and how could I forget their red haired golden retriever Bailey who is quite the little rascal!


Whitney Garbarino and Rob Parks – Married June 26, 2010 at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Whitney and Rob's wedding is the most recent so that is why it is so fresh in my mind. You have seen many pictures from their wedding in my past posts. Whitney and Rob’s wedding was one I’ll never forget and it was not only beautiful but more fun than I can remember having in a long time. Whitney and Rob live in the Boston area and have the most adorable yet mischievous golden retriever puppy named Oliver.


And Coming Soon…Tiffany Garbarino engaged to David Kalnas – set to marry on March 24, 2012. We are super excited to share this day with our friends and family and can’t wait for this day to come!!

Non-Wedding Wednesday

I am heading to St. Augustine this weekend for a camping trip with about 8 of our friends. I have never been camping before so this will be a new experience. I would say that I am slightly stressing a little over what I need to bring. I really have no clue as far as the resources that will be available, aka..running water for showers or to cook with?? As far as I have heard most who attend this campsite saddle up and plug in to their trailer/RV so that they have electricity, but our gang is going at it the old fashioned way and tenting it!

I wonder if my economy size blow drier and hair straighter will be appropriate to bring, or my make-up bag and make-up mirror? I am totally picturing myself like the princess from Space Balls when Barf and Lone Staff tell her to "only pack the essentials" and in the middle of the desert after lugging her 1,000 pound trunk around, out comes an oversized blow drier. For some reason that scene always made me laugh and reminded me of myself.

It is supposed to drop in temperature this weekend so it will be perfect camping weather. I am looking forward to sitting around the campfire with good friends all bundled up playing card games and sharing stories! I will hopefully have pictures to post after the trip!

Wish me luck!!

Where it all started

July 13, 1974, the day Mary Ellen Cole said “I do” to John Angelo Garbarino.

Pictured here are my parents on their wedding day. Look how innocent and young they are with their whole lives ahead of them. My mom was only 18 years old on this day and my dad probably not even 22 or 23. They probably had no idea that there would be good times and bad times ahead, that eventually they would have four mouths to feed and put through college, and that one day they would have a beautiful house to care for. This day was a beautiful start to a beautiful life for many.

I had a conversation one day with my mom way back in the very beginning of the planning stages when I was feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all and she reminded me of something I had forgotten. She reminded me that I didn’t need to have all the hoopla and that I could get married in a dive bar if that’s what I wanted. She reminded me that all that mattered for my wedding day was what I wanted and not what everyone else wanted. She reminded me that people love me and that no matter what they would be happy for me. And lastly, she reminded me that 36 years ago her and my father had had a simple wedding that didn’t require spending astronomical amounts of money and it was perfect.

My point is that my parents didn’t need buckets full of money to throw an extravagant wedding to prove to the world that they were in love. Their love has been proven to the world through the four wonderful (maybe a little biased) children that they have raised, the beautiful home in which they have created together, and a loving marriage of 35 plus years.

I hope my marriage will possess half of the strong qualities in a marriage that my parents have subjected me too since before I was even born into this world. As I have grown older I have realized that I have taken for granted my upbringing in a non-broken home and realized that for others it wasn’t always so easy. I am grateful that my parents continue to live by the “For Better or For Worse” vow that they made to each other on that perfect day of July 13, 1974.

Mary Ellen and John's four children - pictured here at youngest daughter Whitney's wedding in June 2010

Without Further Ado

I almost died laughing this morning when first thing I opened my work email there was a lovely message from my mother waiting to be opened. It surely made me smile and now I hope to make you smile.

This is a follow up post to my Non-wedding Wednesday post last Wednesday.

I present to you my first grade Halloween picture dressed as a bum. I was so little and cute. I hope people look back and think..wow you havn't changed a bit!

Thanks for scanning this in and sending to me mom!!

Enjoy!